Day of the (dead) cameraman

Rating: 3/10 (28 December 2019)

This has been on my watchlist for ages. I never knew about the movie when it was new but at some point started seeing the title everywhere and started wondering if the popularity means it's some sort of classic. Now I did finally watch it. But it wasn't the classic I was hoping for. Quite the contrary.
The concept is ok. Somewhere between Romero's "Dead" movies, Stephen King's "The Stand", with resemblance also to the 1985 movie "The Quiet Earth" the story is ok (yet reminds of those numerous other movies a bit too much, but that doesn't matter if the movie is enjoyable.)
The real problem is the camerawork. There's "shaky cam", a lot of tilted angles for no reason, fast-forward effect, extreme closeups, random framing of the picture... I don't have anything against experimental ideas if they makes the result look good but here it just feels like this was shot by some wannabe-artistic teenager who doesn't know anything about camerawork and just tries to be edgy by holding the camera in all possible weird directions. I guess this kind of style was popular in the early 2000's (in the wake of "Blair Witch Project"?) Even if the story was good it's hard to enjoy because all the time the visual style feels annoying to look at.
Also, I didn't find the movie really scary. Even though it has horror elements I'd more likely describe the mood as unsettling in a psychological thriller style. The story is a bit better than the visual style but still nothing really special. Quite basic apocalyptic/zombie/survival kind of thing. Characters and acting are ok but nothing really stands out.
Overall: I didn't like it. In the early 2000's there was a phase when I quit watching brand new movies altogether and started to protest by collecting old Dracula's and such. This movie makes me remember exactly why I felt that way.